This invention relates generally to mounting telescopic sights to firearms and, more specifically, to an improved and more reliable cap design for holding a telescope in a telescopic sight mount.
Telescopic sights are commonly used today to facilitate and improve the accurate aiming of rifles or other firearms at a target. A telescope typically includes an optical system having objective and ocular lens systems and a reticle disposed between the lens systems and at the focal point of the lens system. This reticle is superimposed over an image of the target, thereby eliminating the necessity for a shooter to change eye focus between the sight and the target. The telescope optical system normally provides a magnified target image. The telescope most frequently is an elongate, cylindrical object that sits within appropriately shaped mounting means fastened to the firearm.
The mounting means or telescopic sight mount is fastened to the firearm by screws that fit within the predrilled and pretapped holes in the receiver. The screw receiving holes in the sight mount align with the predrilled and pretapped holes in the firearm's receiver. Thus, once the mount is fastened to the firearm receiver, the telescopic sight may be fastened in place within the sight mount.
The sight mount must permit the telescopic sight to be easily and quickly replaceable. This will facilitate repairing the telescopic sight and make the weapon's sighting more flexible so that telescopic sights of different powers may be employed with the same firearm for different hunting or shooting conditions. The telescopic sight must be replaceable in a manner that is simple and reliable so that the sight may be placed in the exact position and location in the mount on the firearm without the necessity of repeated adjustments. Most importantly, the sight mount must hold the telescopic sight securely during use so that the telescopic sight does not shift and affect the eye relief or change the line of sight of the shooter to the target when firing.
Previous mounts have cap means or a cap portion that fits over and about the telescopic sight and is fastened to the sight mount base in several ways. The ring or cap typically employs screws on both sides of the ring to fasten the ring into the mount. A variation of this employs a clamp-type of arrangement that locks the ring against a projection on one side of the sight mount while the other side of the ring is fastened to the base by screws. Another approach has employed the use of at least one screw that extends generally horizontally through the rings to draw the rings together into the sight mount base at the bottom of the rings. This latter ring system works on a clamping principle that draws the side of the ring into contact with the sides of the telescope.
All of these systems, however, employ a ring or cap means that is unitary about its periphery. Most ring clamps employ connection points to the sight base at the midline of the sight or slightly below so that the only contact with the arcuate periphery of the cylindrical telescope is generally at the top. During use in hunting these types of sight mounts have the potential to lose the secure holding of the telescope when subjected to rugged cross country travel. Typically, when hunting in icy or snowy conditions, or rough mountain terrain, a hunter may slip or otherwise lose footing and accidentally bring the firearm with its telescope into impacting contact with vegetation or the surrounding terrain. This harsh contact can cause the telescope sight to shift its position within the mount, thereby changing the eye relief or the alignment of the telescope sight with the barrel of the firearm, adversely affecting the accuracy of the weapon's aim.
These aforementioned problems, however, are solved in the design of the present invention where a two piece cap is joined at a dovetail joint above the center line of the sight mount so that the dovetail joint is flexible as the individual cap pieces are tightened down to the mount base below the center line of the sight to obtain increased surface area contact with the periphery of the telescope.